The present invention relates to a container for a plurality of disk-shaped articles, in particular recording media, consisting of a base portion consisting of two at least substantially similar parts and which is provided with at least two openings and possesses a plurality of receiving grooves for the articles, and of at least one cover portion and of disengageable locking means provided between the base portion and the at least one cover portion. The invention also relates to a container part for such a container.
A known container of the kind referred to, for disks, consists of a box which can be closed by means of a cover and contains a plurality of parallel grooves whose internal width corresponds to the width of a data storage disk and which also have the other dimensions of the data storage disks. The container has two or more thin elastically deformable projections which are separated from one another, project into the container and extend transversely with respect to the direction of the grooves over the entire area in which grooves are present. When data storage disks are placed in the container the grooves fit closely against the disks at two or more points displaced relative to one another in the peripheral direction (German Laid-Open Application DOS No. 3 429 244 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,382).
In this known container, the disks can be protected from becoming soiled and from mechanical damage. The grooves present in this container keep the disks spaced apart so that they cannot come into contact with one another when the container is transported. The elastically deformable projections press the disks into the grooves and thus fix their relative positions. In the known container, the projections are in the form of lamellae which consist of a relatively small amount of material and whose resilience rapidly declines. Moreover, the thin lamellae can be easily broken off, so that the disks are then no longer adequately protected. This known container has an overall height which is approximately the same as that of the disks to be transported in it. However a disadvantage of this construction is that disks are difficult to insert into the container or box. Furthermore, the box is consequently difficult to clean. To facilitate cleaning, which is absolutely essential in such containers, the known container has a removable base. This makes the container in general expensive since three parts, i.e. the box, the cover and the base, are required, each part having a different form and having to be produced separately.
PCT Laid-Open Application WO 86/00746 discloses a container for thin articles, in particular FlexyDisks.RTM. (.RTM. is a registered trademark of BASF Aktiengesellschaft), in which two externally identical container halves form a completely closed container provided with receiving elements for the FlexyDisks. The receiving elements are formed by elements which have an L-shaped cross-section and possess grooves for the edges of a FlexyDisk, the elements being arranged in each container half. Consequently, the distance between the individual FlexyDisks in each half is greater than it would be if each of the halves formed a single container. The halves can be connected to one another by joints. This container is purely an archive container and, because of its many individual parts, is likewise expensive to produce.
For the purposes of the present invention, disk-shaped articles can be any disk elements, e.g. printed circuits, wafers for integrated circuits, etc, or any type of disk-type or plate-shaped recording medium, such as magnetic disks, optical, magnetooptical or electrical storage disks for storing any desired information in analog, digital or video form. The purpose of a container of the type according to the present invention is illustrated below with reference to data storage disks.
Data storage disks, referred to below as disks for short, may be, for example, magnetic disks for electronic data processing units, which have a coated metal body. However, the disks may furthermore be other data media possessing a stiff, coated basic element, for example digital magnetic disks. The coating suitable for data storage is very sensitive, and the disks must therefore be handled very carefully at the manufacturing plant, during production, during transport from the manufacturing plant to the consumer, and also subsequently. Particular care must be taken to ensure that the sensitive coating is not damaged.